Mirabell61

6 POUNDER CANNONS

 
The Mantua kit included six small cannons. At first I thought they were too small  to be used on a revenue cutter, but I compared their length to information for various cannons used in the early 1800s and found they were approximately correct for 1:48 scale 6 pounders. 6 pounder guns were used on the revenue cutters, so I decided to make carriages for them and see how they worked on the 1:48 model.
 
This image shows the 12 pounder cannon used on the pivot gun at the top. The 6 pounder cannon is below it. Actually, both guns are a bit "pudgy" or broader in proportion to length for the dimensions of the real cannons of the period. But I decided to use them on this build anyway.
 
 
 
The next picture shows a major problem with the cannons supplied with the kit. Both barrels were bored out to ridiculous diameters. The walls were so thin that the cannons would have exploded if they were fired with enough charge to expel the ball from the muzzle! Comparing length to bore diameter the 12 pounder was bored for a 28 pound ball, and the 6 pounder was bored for a 24 pound shot!!
 
I soldered concentric brass tubing into the barrels and then bored the barrels to the proper diameters. The 12 pounder fired 4.5 inch balls, and the 6 pounder fired 3.75 inch balls. The photo shows the original over sized bore and the resulting correct bore dimensions.
 
 
 
Another problem with the parts supplied with the kit was the height of the barrels on the 6 pounders when mounted on the supplied carriages and wheels. The barrel height was about the same as the top of the railing on the bulwarks. This meant the guns could only be aimed downward! That's OK if you are using them for fishing, but they would have been useless for any other purpose.

 
The drawing shows the plan for gun carriages that would work on the model. The ship had substantial camber to the deck, so when the ship was on an even keel the deck edge sloped downward. To get the guns to fire with just slight elevation the carriages would have to be significantly lower than the kit parts, and the rear wheels would have to be much smaller diameter than the front wheels (this was common on real gun carriages). Using the dimensions of the deck, bulwark and rail on the model and the kit supplied cannons I worked out the dimensions of the carriages and wheels to allow the guns to be run out with the barrels horizontal (solid red outline) and to be fired with up to 5 degree elevation (dashed blue outline) with the quoin removed. However, if they were fired with elevation the recoil back up the sloping deck would have caused the top of the barrel to strike the railing over the gun port. The red dashed line shows the travel path of the top of the barrel in the horizontal position - it just clears the rail.

 
I constructed new carriages for the 6 pounders. Each carriage had seven wooden parts, four brass wheels, a pin head for the quoin handle and two metal loops for the gun tackle. To put things in scale, the small brass wheels are 0.125 inch diameter. It was a lot of small parts to make. Just imagine doing this for a 100 gun ship of the line!
 
I thought I might make the wheels from wood, but 1/8 inch dowels were not suitable for boring the 1/16 inch diameter holes for the axles. I used concentric brass tubing soldered together, two layers for the small wheels and four layers for the large (3/16 inch diameter) wheels. I chose this route because I do not have a lathe to drill the 1/16 inch holes into brass rods.
 

 
Here are pictures of the kit supplied carriages (left) and the scratch built carriages (right). As you can see, the scratch built carriages mount the guns lower. In addition, they are much more correct in the details. The axles are even drilled to allow pins to be inserted to secure the wheels.

Here is the full 6 pounder battery.
 

Thank you Veszett.
I`m doing a prototype flap for the freeing ports (outside bulwarks), each with 2 hinges in brass soldering. I think I`need 5 or 6 of them on each side
 
Nils

 

 
 

Hi John,
To get the sitting right first time ....
I put a horizontal tape line at the footline of the lettering, (for all letters),  started sticking on from there, one by one, and then carefully rolling the the letter upwards, light alignmet corrigations still possible till the rub rail. Pressing into the corners of the rub rail with a piece of wooden plank, and then rolling on the upper part of the letter. It works quite well after a little practice.
 
Nils

Thank you Veszett.
I`m doing a prototype flap for the freeing ports (outside bulwarks), each with 2 hinges in brass soldering. I think I`need 5 or 6 of them on each side
 
Nils

 

 
 

Thank you Veszett.
I`m doing a prototype flap for the freeing ports (outside bulwarks), each with 2 hinges in brass soldering. I think I`need 5 or 6 of them on each side
 
Nils

 

 
 

Thank you Veszett.
I`m doing a prototype flap for the freeing ports (outside bulwarks), each with 2 hinges in brass soldering. I think I`need 5 or 6 of them on each side
 
Nils

 

 
 

Hi John,
To get the sitting right first time ....
I put a horizontal tape line at the footline of the lettering, (for all letters),  started sticking on from there, one by one, and then carefully rolling the the letter upwards, light alignmet corrigations still possible till the rub rail. Pressing into the corners of the rub rail with a piece of wooden plank, and then rolling on the upper part of the letter. It works quite well after a little practice.
 
Nils

Hi Gary,
and thanks for your words, Yes , it was tricky with the rub rail underneath, I thought self adhesive stickers or cut out decals would be OK, but all wrong, finaly I made the letters from white painted and self adhesive thin aluminium foil, and that sticks to the hull contours like hell. I made the lettering a bit larger than the plan shows, (like the ship has in reality ), in fact its nearly from the top bulwark grab rail down to 10 mm over the waterline (on the model)
 
Nils

 

Hi John,
To get the sitting right first time ....
I put a horizontal tape line at the footline of the lettering, (for all letters),  started sticking on from there, one by one, and then carefully rolling the the letter upwards, light alignmet corrigations still possible till the rub rail. Pressing into the corners of the rub rail with a piece of wooden plank, and then rolling on the upper part of the letter. It works quite well after a little practice.
 
Nils

Thank you Veszett.
I`m doing a prototype flap for the freeing ports (outside bulwarks), each with 2 hinges in brass soldering. I think I`need 5 or 6 of them on each side
 
Nils

 

 
 

Hi Gary,
and thanks for your words, Yes , it was tricky with the rub rail underneath, I thought self adhesive stickers or cut out decals would be OK, but all wrong, finaly I made the letters from white painted and self adhesive thin aluminium foil, and that sticks to the hull contours like hell. I made the lettering a bit larger than the plan shows, (like the ship has in reality ), in fact its nearly from the top bulwark grab rail down to 10 mm over the waterline (on the model)
 
Nils

 

You've done a great job on that lettering, Nils. Is there any 'wiggle room' with that adhesive lettering when you put it on, or does it have to be precise first time?
 
John

Coming along very nicely Nils.

Hi Gary,
and thanks for your words, Yes , it was tricky with the rub rail underneath, I thought self adhesive stickers or cut out decals would be OK, but all wrong, finaly I made the letters from white painted and self adhesive thin aluminium foil, and that sticks to the hull contours like hell. I made the lettering a bit larger than the plan shows, (like the ship has in reality ), in fact its nearly from the top bulwark grab rail down to 10 mm over the waterline (on the model)
 
Nils

 

Update 
 
Yesterday I finaly got the lettering done and positioned as intended. This morning I placed all the portholes (painted in hull color, and now all is prepared fore doing the porthole-glassing. The upper row of the forecastle is glassed already. I use 3mm OD silicone transparent cord for the glassing, glue the bits in with CA and cut off from outside square to the porthole face
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
the lettering at the stern (aft) is made from 5mm high white adhesive stickers
 

 

 
 

Hi Gary,
and thanks for your words, Yes , it was tricky with the rub rail underneath, I thought self adhesive stickers or cut out decals would be OK, but all wrong, finaly I made the letters from white painted and self adhesive thin aluminium foil, and that sticks to the hull contours like hell. I made the lettering a bit larger than the plan shows, (like the ship has in reality ), in fact its nearly from the top bulwark grab rail down to 10 mm over the waterline (on the model)
 
Nils

 

Thank you very much Roel and Ken,
I`m pleased that you like lightship in progress
 
Nils

Update 
 
Yesterday I finaly got the lettering done and positioned as intended. This morning I placed all the portholes (painted in hull color, and now all is prepared fore doing the porthole-glassing. The upper row of the forecastle is glassed already. I use 3mm OD silicone transparent cord for the glassing, glue the bits in with CA and cut off from outside square to the porthole face
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
the lettering at the stern (aft) is made from 5mm high white adhesive stickers
 

 

 
 

Many thanks to Keith, John, Phil, and B.E. 
for all your nice comments ....
 
Keith,
I did not find any other lettering related eg. on riveted surface and with rail underneath.
I trust the methode now found will do it
 
John,
I`m glad that I did all the trials on a dummy background first
 
Phil,
thanks your encouraging comment
 
B.E.
I just love the challenge to find a way of realizing an idea. Once it works it goes to the "box" of approven experience
 
Nils

Phil,
thank you very much for your suggestion, your kind input is very much appreciated. I indeed am having problems with the lettering, and I do`n want to spoil the model. My great hope was that the decal application would do it. I tried this a few times and it always ended in a mess, because the cut out and wet decal letters are far too fragile to shift them in place without breaking.  This brought quite some frustration and gave me some headaches thinking what to do, and tying out alternative ways. I needed some time for further motivation.
 
Finaly I found a methode that worked (at least on a dummy arrangement ) :
 
I printed the letters on normal paper and cut them out with a little oversize. Then I sprayed some adhesive promoter on a bit of very thin  and self adhesive strip of silver aluminiun foil. After that the silver foil side was painted in color of the letters (white). The oversize cutout printed letters were glued to the rear side of the foil`s silicon paper protection side. Then the aluminium foil with glued together with the printed paper cutout templates these "laminated letters" were cut out as precise as I could. Finaly the thin aluminiun letters (now white color) were removed from silcon paper and then carefully brought into position.
Due to the good adhesive gluefilm of the aluminium foil rearside, the underground contures ( rivets and rail ) could be easily pressed down with an rubber erasor. The foil did not partiialy "lift off" in the problem zones, and the rivets can be recognized
I hope this was understandable and enclose two pics......
 
Nils
these paper prints were only needed for size and contours of the letters

here samples for letters "E" and "B" were placed were peranently to the dummy arrangement

Hi John,
yes its causing me headaches, and I`ll ty to avoid a mess up on the hull, because I never did own-made decals before. Because I ca`nt print white on transparent decal paper, I`m using white decal ground and have to sharp cut out every letter as good as I can and then start the waterslide transfer letter per letter. I`ll do a trial decal attachment to a dummy arrangement first, when I have the ordered softener in hands
 
Nils

Thank you very much Mike,
 
I`m just trying to get the portholes ( 6mm OD )in line with the lettering, and must arrange them so that I  drill the borings clear of the frames. Also the outside diam. of the portholes must be centered in the letter-spaces without damaging them too much. Made a small dummy for the check. The white decal letters must be brought in very precice positions  to the hull. Hope it works
 
Nils

20 mm high lettering. The brass portholes will be prior painted in red hull-color, glassed an then pushed into the 4 mm holes
 

Hi John and Uwe, Thanks very much for your kind words
 
John,
I hope I`ll get along as well for the rest of the deal
 
Uwe,
as a Hamburg area citizen I know you are familier with the elbe 1, although this legend is not in duty any more
 
Nils
 

congrats to your beautiful chebec model Daniel,
 
Nils

great work Siggi,
 
I see that your chissel cutting tool has the exact contour of the spindles, smart and time saving idea !
 
Nils